Dan Shipp

Dr. Dan Shipp — he prefers just Dan — began his job as the 10th president of Pittsburg State University on June 6, 2022.  

He came to PSU after having served as the vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and associate to the chancellor at University of Nebraska Medical Center, a public medical school in Omaha that is at the forefront of 21st Century health sciences education, innovative research, and patient care.   

Considered to be a nationally recognized leader and innovator in higher education, Dan has designed educational and support programs, services, facilities, provided planning and project leadership at multiple universities, led initiatives to grow enrollment, and removed barriers for underserved students. 

His career has included: 

• serving as a classroom instructor for over two decades, teaching undergraduate education courses that have included leadership, social and emotional competency development, and service learning. 
• serving as the vice chancellor for student success at both the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Medical Center. 

• providing executive leadership to the Walter Scott Jr. Scholarship Program — Nebraska’s premiere STEM-based academic honors program. 
• serving as the associate vice president of student life at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he was responsible for leading the campus effort to design and build the $40 million DeRosa University Center.  
• providing leadership to the development of a series of award-winning student educational and success initiatives at the UP that led to significant improvements in overall student retention.  
• serving as a founding member of the Center for Social and Emotional Competence and on the Center’s inaugural advisory board.  
• serving as a senior student affairs leader at the University of Missouri, where he provided project leadership to the design, development, and implementation of what is widely recognized as one of the nation’s finest athletic and recreation facilities — the $50 million Mizzou Student Recreation Complex. 

He earned a doctorate in educational leadership and administration from the University of the Pacific in California, a master of arts in education from the University of Nebraska Omaha, and a bachelor of arts in education from the University of Nebraska Lincoln.   

He also is a graduate of Stanford’s design thinking executive education program. His academic areas of interest and study include leadership, social and emotional competency development, design thinking, collaboration, and resiliency.   

Dan and his wife, Vanessa, are parents to three sons: Oliver (12), Finnegan (10), and Samuel (7). 

Dan expressed his philosophy of life during his introduction to the campus by the Kansas Board of Regents to the campus in April, 2022 by quoting John Wesley, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”